Adobe announces Photoshop CS6 and CS6 Extended

Adobe has announced Photoshop CS6 and CS6 Extended as part of its latest suite of creative packages. The latest version includes all the features seen in the recent public beta, including a content-aware move, video editing, the blur gallery and Adobe Camera Raw 7, which features a revised series of controls. More than ever Adobe is pushing its subscription option and Internet-based Creative Cloud service. Prices range from $999/£794 ex VAT to buy Photoshop CS6 Extended down to $19.99/£14.29 ex VAT per month for an annual subscription of the basic version.

We've already published several articles, looking at the additional features that have been introduced as part of CS6:

London, UK — April 23, 2012—Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced Adobe® Photoshop® CS6 and Photoshop CS6 Extended software, major releases of the undisputed standard for professional digital imaging. Packed with new features and enhancements, the software includes groundbreaking innovations and unparalleled performance breakthroughs that expand the frontiers of imaging science, and deliver new levels of creativity and increased efficiency. Photoshop CS6 Extended integrates the state-of-the-art editing, compositing, and graphic design capabilities of Photoshop CS6, as well as advanced tools for 3D design*, image and video editing, and quantitative analysis which address the unique needs of the graphic design, video, Web, architecture, medical, manufacturing and engineering industries.

“Creativity is at the very centre of our efforts – both in developing exceptional tools, and enabling our users to create beautiful imagery that stands out from the visual clutter around us,” said Winston Hendrickson, vice president products, Creative Media Solutions, Adobe. “Photoshop CS6 is unrivalled in capabilities and power and – as we have seen from the astonishing reception of our recent public beta – has once again captured the imagination of the worldwide creative community. ‘Photoshop magic’ is alive and well with CS6.”

Since Photoshop CS6 was released as a public beta on March 22 for Mac OS and Microsoft® Windows® platforms, there have been nearly one million downloads of the software worldwide – surpassing any public beta in Adobe’s history. With this launch, Photoshop CS6 and Photoshop CS6 Extended can be purchased as stand-alone applications, key components of the Adobe Creative Suite 6 family (see separate press release), and now as part of Adobe’s revolutionary Creative Cloud™ offering, also announced today (see separate release).

Create with Imaging Innovation and Peak Performance

Photoshop CS6 and Photoshop CS6 Extended deliver unparalleled speed and power combined with the creative tools necessary to perform advanced image manipulation, design, motion‐based content editing, and compositing. The software helps users to patch images with control for exceptional results; edit with real-time interactions and a fluid feel powered by the new Mercury Graphics Engine; easily edit video; perform automatic tone mapping and sharpening; and use improved design tools for better results with fewer steps. Creative customers will be able to take advantage of an efficient, modern UI that puts all focus on images, and sync settings and preferences for consistent workflows across multiple devices via Adobe Creative Cloud.

“Adobe Photoshop CS6 gives Trek powerful design tools to help bring our creative vision to a reality faster and with greater control than ever before. The responsiveness of the new Mercury Graphics Engine is simply breathtaking and being able to see the results instantaneously helps us keep to our extremely tight timelines," said Eric Lynn, creative director, Trek Bicycle. "We often work with large files that include more than 500 layers and being able to search them all – and continue working while saving a large document – is invaluable to our workflow and a huge time saver for us.” Photoshop CS6 features include:

Content-Aware Patch – Allows greater control by letting users choose the sample area used to create a patch.

Adobe Mercury Graphics Engine – Takes advantage of the graphics processing unit in modern hardware to speed up imaging and editing tasks, and process large images faster.

Adobe Creative Cloud and Digital Imaging

Creative Cloud membership provides designers with access to download and install every new Adobe CS6 application announced today and two new HTML5 products, Adobe Muse™ and Adobe Edge preview.

Creative Cloud powers the integration of creative tablet applications, such as Photoshop Touch, into everyday work – seamlessly synchronising and storing files in the cloud, for sharing and access on any device.

Creative Cloud members will be able to easily deliver mobile apps to iOS and Android marketplaces and publish, manage and host websites.

Adobe Creative Cloud members will receive access to application upgrades, including new Photoshop features – before they are launched as part of a major update, as well as inventive new products and services, as they emerge. Adobe Photoshop Lightroom® 4 will be offered as part of Creative Cloud membership in the future.

Live Streamed Webcast

The launch event for Adobe Creative Cloud and CS6 will be streamed live beginning at 6pm GMT, April 23 at www.adobe.com/special/cs6/launch-event.html and will be available there as a continuous rebroadcast from 7pm – midnight GMT on April 23. An on-demand version will be available at http://tv.adobe.com beginning April 24.

Pricing and Availability

Adobe Photoshop CS6, Adobe Photoshop CS6 Extended, Adobe Creative Suite 6 editions and Adobe Creative Cloud are scheduled to be available within 30 days and can be pre-ordered now. Photoshop CS6 and Photoshop CS6 Extended will also be available through Adobe Authorised Resellers, the Adobe Store and Adobe Direct Sales; estimated street price for Photoshop CS6 is £556 (ex. VAT) and £794 (ex. VAT) for Photoshop CS6 Extended.

Upgrade pricing is also available to eligible customers. Subscription pricing for Photoshop CS6 Extended is £14.29 (ex. VAT) per month for an annual contract and £22.23 (ex. VAT) for a month-to-month contract. For more detailed information about features, OS support, system requirements, upgrade policies and pricing, please visit http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/photoshop.html

Adobe Creative Cloud membership for individuals is £38.11 (ex. VAT) per month based on annual membership and £57.17 (ex. VAT) per month based on month-to-month membership and includes access to Photoshop CS6 Extended. A special introductory offer of £22.23 (ex. VAT) per month for CS3, CS4, CS5 and CS5.5 individual customers is also available. Learn more at http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/creativecloud.html

Comments

I always felt that 3D art was still too time consuming for an age in which we need it everywhere! I do posters, cards, AVs, walk-throughs and a lot more graphic and video work and for all of these things I spend way too much time on the 3D rendering. I happened upon this video that showcases the new3D features of Photoshop CS6 - http://tv.adobe.com/watch/photoshop-cs6-featuretour/3d-controls-at-your-fingertips-in-photoshop-cs6-extended/?sdid=JYNWV and it’s pretty interesting. I’ve got the trial version http://www.adobe.com/in/downloads/?sdid=JUMTN and I’ve just started playing around with the features. Let’s hope things go smoothly!

I hope Photoshop CS6 really is a lot faster than CS5.1. I have been using CS4 for a couple of years or so and when I recently upgraded to CS5.1 I was very disappointed in the speed. If CS4 is a Ferrari, then CS5.1 is a Prius with four flat tires! CS5.1 returned us to the days of Adobe BLOATWARE....

For the record, and all the misinformation, ufraw, as a precursor to Gimp (like ACR, to Adobe CS*, AKA Photoshop), handles your 16-bit Raw files, and 16-bit light adjustments, relative to photography. ANY concern about not first adjusting in 16-bits, is done there first. This is hardly the whole game, however.

Quote:"When can we see 16-bit per channel support (or better)?

For some industries, especially photography, 24-bit colour depths (8 bits per channel) are a real barrier to entry. Once again, it's GEGL to the rescue. Work on integrating GEGL into GIMP began after 2.4 was released, and will span across several stable releases. This work will be completed in GIMP 3.0, which will have full support for high bit depths. If you need such support now and can't wait, cinepaint and krita support 16 bits per channel now.

It should be noted that for publishing to the web, the current GIMP release is good enough."

I lucked out. I didn't have any license of Photoshop for quite a while. Always just used the Photoshop seats that whatever pre-press house I was working at had.

Two months ago, Amazon sent me a great deal on Photoshop CS5 for only $221...$400 bucks off the regular price. Now, I can upgrade to CS6 for $199 and still be under the full retail price.

I also got lucky with Amazon again when they sent me a message saying I could buy Lightroom 3 for $50. The very next week, Adobe released Lightroom 4. So I sent them a copy of the Amazon receipt and two weeks later a package shows up from Adobe with the Lightroom 4 upgrade for free!

Now I'm sure the rest of my year will be filled with nothing but bad luck...

I have CS5 and just bought 5.5 to take advantage of the free upgrade to CS6. But then I was thinking, upgrade usually ask for previous version serial number, and if you buy 5.5 upgrade now, when installing cs6, just key in 5.5 upgrade? Is my logic off? or this is an opportunity for someone to buy into the suit for upgrade price?

I think you just enter the previous version's serial number when prompted. In fact, if you leave the previous version installed on your machine then it (from memory, might be wrong) doesn't even ask you for it.

Got to say though that I'm puzzled as to why you took this route. Why not just pay for the CS5 to CS6 upgrade? Getting CS5.5 seems an unneccesary step to me. Probably overlooking something!

That said, I have CS5 and intend to move to CS6 with no 'intermediate' step.

I think we're all talking about the standalone Photoshop, not one of the suites. That explains why you're paying so much more for an upgrade, but nonetheless you seem to be getting a real bargain there with your "workaround"!

It isn't a straight process or otherwise he would not be asking. Adobe's site is poorly designed and designed to steer you to more expensive options. That is why you see the Creative Cloud suite being offered prominently and the simple and cheaper Photoshop option hidden in comparison. It's that kind of stuff that makes people hate Adobe.

A straightforward site is Apple's. That is how a store and a site should be designed.

I have used Photoshop since 1998 when Photoshop 5 was released. It look beautiful, although was a challenge for machine. In pentium III era it was fast. I stop tracing versions after Photoshop 6 and I have no idea what is going on with CS series and how all that "evolved". I'm using CS5 currently and I don't care about upgrades, when menus now look more complicated, and constantly modified with tons of sub-options added. I had known in Photoshop 5 almost every icon, menu, keyboard shortcut and was pretty fast in image processing. Now in CS5 it takes me even more time to do a basic things and everything seems sluggish and slower. I have Quad core Raid machine with 8GB of RAM. Who really needs all those options in CS5 and what is the purpose of upgrade other than reselling something in a new package with hint of a new spice. I always needed something else than a cascade or free floating windows, some better organization of all open files and I still don't see that!

Oh yeah. Now we need fast GPU to run Photoshop. Adobe spoils their product with each new version. That is a common trend with some others big software developers, too. Seems I will stay with CS2 forever. I tried all new versions and they are awful.

CS6 is worth the upgrade though with a lot of good interface features. At least, for me personally, no one can speak for everyone. I just stick with the regular Photoshop and not the "extended" version.

Work with what works for you. If the version you have works fine for you, no need to upgrade. Some of us have to stay current so that if we have a customer that has the very latest version and we're swapping assemblies around, they match up pretty well. There are ways around this of course, just less hassle.

Apparently it was not ready to be a feature, but there is no question that the science exists because the university research is public. Big companies like them are careful about what they say, that is why they never called it a new feature but a tech demo of stuff in the lab. Was there a single instance of it ever being said it was in CS6? If not, there was no fraud.

"it was an preview of a feature that MAY make it into a future PS version"

No. It was a preview of a feature that will NEVER make it into a future version. It "works" in such a limited number of real-world examples that you have pretty much zero odds of ever encountering one.

I have Master Collection CS5 and Adobe shows my upgrade to CS6 as being $1049. Adobe's site also shows upgrades from CS5 to CS5.5, and then CS5.5 to CS6 as being $550 each, so $1100 total, or $50 more.

Incidentally, there is no Master Suite, there are Creative Suites and there is the Master Collection...

sorry for my wording - Go here:https://store1.adobe.com/cfusion/store/html/index.cfm?store=OLS-US&event=displayProduct&categoryPath=/Applications/ProductionPremiumCS55&distributionMethod=FULLLook on the left hand side in blue: "Buy CS5.5 now and get CS6 at no additional cost. Offer ends May 6, 2012"I did a chat session with them to make sure it works with upgrades - "griffin" said it did-made sure and printed out the chat just to be safe.

The fact that the Gimp does these things better, how to easily do them, links, and how it easily translates over to Gimp, with silly words like "Clarity", and "Vibrance", is RELEVANT! (Also easier, open, and free.)

They are called OPINIONS! Facts, not diminished; in any case.

Deleting several peoples posts, shows a complete lack of journalistic integrity. Now, trust is the issue.

I always tell my photoshop students to go for Gimp if they don't have the cash (for a student discount)- but a lot of them have the learning curve of going from Adobe to Gimp, but when it's over come - it's totally worth it.

It's an old (very old) myth that Gimp can't effectively do 16bit, or Raw files. Basically ufraw does your Raw, you can even have gimp pull the raw file, and automatically go through ufraw. Ufraw can automatically transition to Gimp, without todo (other than turning that on, an easy install). I prefer to save; from ufraw, to a *.PNG file, and as a working file. I always retain my original Raw files, as untouched. I can keep the *.PNG work-file, for making many versions, or even testing other editors (passing it through many different apps, but not necessary.) I can completely delete the work file, because ufraw is so fast, developing raw, once you color profile your camera. Lesser photos, or great ones that will be downsized to small, web size anyway, may simply be pulled (quite instantaneous; in groups) from it's embedded Raw. Once you insert "dcraw -e" into your 'open as' list, in you file browser, just right click; to open in ufraw, or to pull the JPEG out. It could not be easier.

Did you catch the inference, that Gimp must be less, because it's free. If you don't know why Gimp is better, and still free, you might want to read about how, and why, open software sharing is WORKING so well. I doubt many intelligent people have not figured that one out, by now.

Gimp is progressing, and still, older versions are better than what we see, as pathetic, copy cat, closed-up, lock-in software stamped as "PRO", today. The pros know Gimp is POWERFUL. Why don't you?

What we see, from some here folks, is extreme prejudice. Motives will vary. Since Gimp is free, what's mine? If I can't post my opinion here, you can all, just go straight to.....(Microsoft Hades) LOL.

"Gimp is progressing, and still, older versions are better than what we see, as pathetic, copy cat, closed-up, lock-in software stamped as "PRO", today. The pros know Gimp is POWERFUL. Why don't you?"

For well less than $50 you can buy Paint Shop Pro and get a much more powerful program than GIMP and one that is much easier to use. Free is fine if you don't factor in other important issues like capability and ease of use.

Gimp is fine for what it is but to compare it to either Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop is laughable.

You are welcome to your opinion. It just sounds like you are bias against Gimp. All this fuss of "hard to use", is simply, and reasonably, untrue. I find gimp to be the easiest to use, without limiting the benefits, that may be done. In fact, one of the things I'm trying to say, is one can go all out, geek manual, with it, OR simply select one of the very many instant treatment plug-ins. You see for example, it doesn't just have one treatment available for a Dreamy Lomo look, it has at least 3, and among those, you have slider easy options, to get the look YOU want, and per picture; which as you know, vary. That doesn't count numerous other things one could do, to effect a Lomo look. Nor, does it count a million other treatments that have little, or nothing, to do with Lom, That's just one example. The other end of the scale, could use one of the Enhancements in GMIC, to actually make your sensor look far more detailed, than it is! So really, Gimp is the most unlimited. Just +ufraw.

$19.99 per month. Another accursèd recurring monthly charge. Plus, I mistrust cloud computing, for a plethora of reasons. But my real complaint is the fact that, after whipping us up to a lather last October with their "Sneak" peek at their near-supernatural deblurring tool, they pull the rug out by not including it in CS6. What are they thinking?? On the whole, CS6 is for me a dud. Outside of the dark-tone UI (which took them DECADES to roll out), I have no reason whatsoever to upgrade at this time. The deblurring demo is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyOSDcfME1U.

That article was a hoax...They used the blur tool they have embedded in PS and added motion blur, then used some fake process that suddenly deblured a photo? I'm come on, You simply don't have the image date there to make a blurred photo as sharp as if it was taken sharp. You need lots of computer power and even at that I'm sure they could tweak and make look better then did before, but their demonstration was fake!

Maybe I'm alone on this but I think Adobe greed is out of control. Let's face it there is a core of useful tools which we have to keep paying for again and again with a little added fluff. It's not that the additions aren't nice but the updates are to little, to much, to often.

I agree on LR4. Phenominal value!. As good as CS6 appeears to be I just cannot justify the ££££'s it costs in the UK for the few features I use it for. My employers run it so any editing I need I do at work.

I was using Lightroom 4 and Photoshop CS4. I decided to Pre-order but they had a link saying I could upgrade now (until May 6) and get Photoshop CS6 for no extra charge when it is released. That probably seems like an unnecessary step too most people, but since I just bought a Sony NEX C3 and CS4 cannot open the RAW (ARW) files I decided to first upgrade to Photoshop CS5.1. Now I don't have to wait a week or more to directly edit my NEX C3 RAW in Photoshop. Lightroom 4 already opens them, but then I had to export to TIFF to edit in Photoshop.

Great news for the Photoshop junkie. This software keeps getting better and better and I still only use a few of the tools. Too bad my software and computer budget requires that I wait six months before I upgrade and send my cash to Silicon Valley.

Rip off I upgraded before the December 31 deadline now they want another £190 for the up grade to CS6 . You had to upgrade or Adobe said that you wouldn't be able to upgrade to 6 from 3 or 4 so I did ,now the want another £190 disgraceful .